Simon Leviev is the topic of the tinder swindler, a new Netflix real crime documentary. Leviev is shown in the film as a master scam artist who allegedly acquired $10 million from unwitting tinder matches before being apprehended in Greece in 2019 for traveling with a fake passport and deported to Israel.
Now that he’s out of prison, he appears to be living the high life. If you’re as perplexed as I am about how this is possible, stick around until the end of the video because we’ll discuss how tinder swindler Simon Leviev continues to enjoy a luxurious lifestyle today.
Check out the video if you are already tired of reading:
Who is the Tinder Swindler a.k.a Simon Leviev?
Leviev was born Shimon Hayut and was imprisoned in Israel in 2011 for fraud-related offenses and later in Finland for scamming three women. He returned to Israel in 2017 and assumed the name Simon Leviev. Shimon claimed to be the heir to “Diamond Tycoon” Lev Leviev, according to his victims, despite the fact that he has no family ties to the millionaire.
Simon Leviev accompanied Cecilie Fjellhøy on a private plane from London to Bulgaria for a night on their first date in January 2018. They’d met on Tinder, and after a coffee date at his hotel, he’d expressed remorse for having to go for a business trip, but perhaps she’d like to accompany him? She looked up her date on the internet and discovered that he was the son of Lev Leviev, the “King of Diamonds,” a well-known Russian-Israeli diamond tycoon. While his driver waited, she dashed home and prepared a bag. It was the start of a whirlwind romance that would leave her heartbroken, betrayed, and more than $200,000 in debt.
In response to charges that he presented himself as Lev Leviev’s son, Shimon told Channel 12 news, “I never promoted myself as the son of anyone but people use their imaginations.” After being found guilty of theft, forgery, and fraud, a court sentenced him to 15 months in jail in December 2019. Because of his good behavior, he was released from prison five months early. According to a report by the Times of Israel, Hayut had satisfied the requirements for release under a program aimed at lowering the jail population amid fears of a coronavirus outbreak among convicts.
Pernilla Sjöholm, one of his victims, spoke out against his release, saying “I was in shock from the decision to release him. I’m really disappointed by (Israel’s) justice system which gives a man like that a reduced sentence. He deceived people and left prison after five months? Did you go crazy in Israel?”
The tinder swindler being Shimon Hayut, a 31-year-old Israeli con artist who went by the name Simon Leviev and claimed to be the son of rich Russian-Israeli diamond magnate Lev Leviev. With a net worth of 1.5 billion dollars, Lev Leviev is an Israeli businessman, philanthropist, and investor. The so-called diamond king has five children, none of them named Simon.
The real Leviev diamond family, on the other hand, could disagree. They’ve filed a multi-million dollar defamation, invasion of privacy, trademark infringement, and impersonation case against Simon Leviev in Tel Aviv. “Shimon Hayut is a fraud who stole our family’s identity and has tried to exploit our good name to con victims out of millions of dollars,” Chagit Leviev, Lev Leviev’s daughter, claimed in a statement to E! News from the 28th of February. “He has no relation to the Leviev family and has no affiliation with our company LLD Diamonds.” The family is hoping that their lawsuit will force Simon to “face justice and get the sentence he deserves. Their lawyer has warned that this is just the beginning, and that additional lawsuits will be filed in the future. Simon’s representative responded by telling E! breaking news “Simon believes the family is just trying to insert themselves in the narrative for publicity after the show’s success,” and that “Simon also legally changed his name in 2015 and looks forward to this getting thrown out in court.”
Shimon dubbed himself the “Prince of Diamonds” and enticed the women to establish large lines of credit for him, which he planned to use to pay his extravagant lifestyle. He’d say he needed the money because he’d been threatened and his life relied on it, and then he’d disappear.
To make his claim sound credible, he officially changed his name and recruited helpers and a bodyguard. Shimon would use the money he had scammed from other women to dazzle the women he met on the app with gifts and holiday trips. According to the Netflix documentary, his plan was to meet women on Tinder, deceive them into thinking he was a wealthy heir working in the perilous diamond business, and then start long-distance relationships with them. All the while, he was “trotting for work” and living lavishly on his prior victim’s cash. He’d explain that he was in danger, send videos of his “bodyguard” bleeding, and tell his girlfriend that he needed to use a credit card in someone else’s name so he couldn’t be tracked after they’d been dating for a while.
His women, according to the video, mailed him credit cards, took out loans and lines of credit, and even shipped him suitcases full of cash when he was in need. He pledged that he would repay them. They had to believe him because he was the Prince of Diamonds, who flew private everywhere, slept in the most opulent hotels, and was constantly dressed in luxury gear. And he did pay them back in the form of bounced cheques, bogus watches, and failed bank transfers. Little did any woman realize that the wealth they saw had been paid for by the woman who had come before them—women who were alone, in debt, and seeking for answers at the time.
Simon Leviev was actually Shimon Hayut, a previously convicted conman. He had previously served two years in Finnish prison for scamming multiple women to support his private aircraft, lavish vacations, and Ferrari obsession. Shimon was sentenced to two years in the last prison in 2015, but he escaped to the United States. In 2017, Israel avoided prosecution for other fraud-related offenses. It was in 2018 when he began communicating to ladies under the name Simon Leviev on tinder!
So, where is Leviev these days?
After all, Shimon is now 33 years old and a free man, having been apprehended in June of this year. He had been on the run until he was caught using a fake passport in Greece and was sentenced to 15 months in prison. He was also ordered to reimburse the victims of 150,000 NIS, which is the Israeli currency and equals about 35,000 pounds or 43,000 dollars.
After spending only five months of his sentence, Shimon was released early. His release is supposed to be due to a scheme aimed at lowering the jail population a community in the midst of a coronavirus outbreak as mentioned previously. After he was freed from prison, he was suspected of considering lying even more about seeing a doctor this time in order to get an early vaccine dose.
During the times of Israel, he states that “I am not someone who waits in line or at places with all due respect I will not sit and wait three to four hours. I am not someone who waits and no one can say a word about it.”
Well, Simon Leviev has an Instagram account. It has 97.6 thousand followers as of right now and is set to private, with a picture of him as the profile icon. It looks to remain operational, and according to the Netflix documentary, it still belongs to Shimon, who uses it to spend his money. He’s also developed a website that charges for business advice. According to his website, Simon Leviev has made it all on his own to become a successful businessman.
Leviev has claimed that The Tinder Swindler isn’t accurate in a new interview with Inside Edition. “They present it as a documentary but in truth, it’s like a complete[ly] made-up movie.” He stated, as he sat close to his lover Konlin. “I’m not a Tinder swindler. I was just a single guy that wanted to meet some girls on Tinder. I’m not this monster…People don’t know me so they cannot judge me. I’m the biggest gentleman in the world.”
One would expect a man who has committed such horrors to be troubled, yet this smoothie has not.
Simon Leviev has not been charged with any crimes committed outside of Israel, such as the alleged deception of Cecilie Fjellhøy, Pernilla Sjöholm, or Ayleen Charlotte, who appear in Netflix’s documentary. According to The Times of Israel, he may have defrauded individuals throughout the continent for a total of $10 million dollars between 2017 and 2019. Cecilie, Pernilla, and Ayleen continue to pay off their debts.
Shimon has not only been posting since his Israeli jail time, but he has also acquired a new girlfriend despite being wanted across Europe for a spate of frauds. An Israeli model named Kate Konlin according to The Tinder Swindler’s Instagram stories.
This man epitomizes the cliché “everything that glitters isn’t gold,” and it suits him well. If he ever leaves his own country, Interpol is ready to apprehend him.
